Buchanan Frank R, Leede Emily, Brown Lawrence H, Teixeira Pedro G, Aydelotte Jayson D, Cardenas Tatiana C, Coopwood Thomas B, Trust Marc D, Ali Sadia, Brown Carlos V R
Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas, 1500 Red River St, Austin, TX, 78701, USA.
Am J Surg. 2021 Oct;222(4):855-860. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.02.007. Epub 2021 Feb 11.
We aimed to identify risk factors and risk scoring models to help identify post-traumatic pulmonary embolisms (PE).
We performed a retrospective review (2014-2019) of all adult trauma patients admitted to our Level I trauma center that received a CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) for a suspected PE. A systematic literature search found eleven risk scoring models, all of which were applied to these patients. Scores of patients with and without PE were compared.
Of the 235 trauma patients that received CTPA, 31 (13%) showed a PE. No risk scoring model had both a sensitivity and specificity above 90%. The Wells Score had the highest area under the curve (0.65). After logistic regression, no risk scoring model variables were independently associated with PE.
In trauma patients with clinically suspected PE, clinical variables and current risk scoring models do not adequately differentiate patients with and without PE.
